Top Michigan Democrats Questioned Election Outcomes That Favored Republicans

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D) is set to receive an award next month for “defending democracy” against those who raised concerns about the 2020 election results. Meanwhile, Benson and other Michigan Democrat leaders have a history of expressing concern about Republican-won elections or exploiting the electoral college process.

The JFK Library Foundation announced last week Benson will receive the time-honored Profile in Courage Award and heroized Benson for certifying the 2020 election results in Michigan in the face of objections raised by former President Donald Trump and his supporters.

“Protesters called Benson a ‘traitor’ and a ‘criminal’ for defending the certification of Michigan’s accurate results, which favored Joe Biden,” the award description read. “Benson, the state’s chief elections officer, did not waver, and defended the will of Michigan voters.”

Benson, who has repeatedly disavowed “election deniers” and “democracy deniers,” said in a statement she was “deeply moved & grateful for this incredible recognition.”

The four other award recipients ran the gamut of “courageous,” from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whose country is involved in a deadly conflict with Russia, to Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), who has severed ties with her party through her nonstop condemnations of Trump over the 2020 election.

“I share it not just with these fellow democracy defenders but with everyone working to defend our democracy in this challenging time,” Benson said.

Benson has however raised her own questions about the presidential election results in 2000, 2004, and 2016, a point the Michigan Republican Party detailed thoroughly in January.

Since the 2000 presidential election, Benson has made clear on multiple occasions she does not approve of the way Secretary of State Katherine Harris (R) certified Republican George W. Bush the winner in Florida. Benson claims Harris did not “abide by the laws” and allow a proper recount, despite a recount request being entertained and subsequently shut down by both the Florida and U.S. Supreme Court.

The election “showed that if you don’t have a secretary of state who’s going to abide by the laws and allow a full recount to ensure that all the votes are counted, then everything we fight for is called into question,” Benson said in 2010, per the Arab American News.

There exists “a cloud of suspicion that hangs over election administration” because of Harris, Benson wrote in 2010, calling the 2000 results in Florida “controversial.”

After the 2004 presidential election, when Bush won reelection, Benson observed an “increased concern over the security of” electronic voting machines in her book State Secretaries of State.

Her sympathy for those skeptical of voting machines stands in stark contrast to Benson’s stance in 2020 that the election “is secure, accurate, and anyone who tells you otherwise is attacking our Democracy or unhappy with the results.”

After the 2016 presidential election, when Trump won, Benson determined “real threats” were made “to the security of our democracy,” per a 2018 Argus-Press report.

“We know that there were efforts to hack and interfere [with] our democracy, to nationally impact our machines, to take data from our voters and use it possibly for nefarious means,” Benson said, despite such comments likely generating doubt about the 2016 results among her followers.

Benson is also a fervent supporter of the For the People Act, the partisan bill that passed the House in March 2021 with no Republican support. The bill would strip individual states of power over policies, such as voter ID, in their election processes. Benson has called for ending the U.S. Senate filibuster, a protection that assures the minority party has a voice in key votes, in order to pass the sweeping federal election bill for the sake of “democracy.”

Benson is not alone in challenging the results of past elections as Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist (D) has also taken issue with a Republican-won race.

In May 2017, Gilchrist highlighted what he described as “vote tally discrepancies” in Detroit’s election when Trump won in 2016 and declared a need to “restore” the lack of “trust [in] the integrity of our elections” in the Michigan Chronicle.

On Gilchrist’s own election loss to an incumbent city clerk in November 2017, the Detroit Free Press reported:

Gilchrist also questioned the fluctuation and late surge in votes Winfrey received late in the night after he had a clear lead early for much of the night.

“It raises the question of how tallies were handled and where the votes were coming from,” Gilchrist said.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) praised Michigan’s election in 2020 as “drama-free,” saying, “the people have spoken” and “we really need to focus on moving forward.”

Whitmer sparked drama in 2012, however, when she presided over the electoral college ceremony to formally cast 16 votes for Barack Obama. According to the Detroit News, Whitmer used the ceremony to “invoke a personal privilege” to berate then-Gov. Rick Snyder (R). The outlet noted the Democrat electoral college members used the ceremony to approve a resolution “condemning the Republican-controlled Legislature for rushing ‘ill-conceived bills.’”

The Michigan Republican Party indicated in a statement provided to Breitbart News that Benson’s forthcoming award works to keep “Democrat hypocrisy” in Michigan “on display.”

Communications Director Gustavo Portela said, “Democrat hypocrisy continues to be on display, and it’s a primary reason why Democrats at all levels of government are struggling with voters right now. For too long, they’ve said one thing and done another and voters across the country but especially in Michigan have had enough. They’re ready to vote for change this fall.”

Write to Ashley Oliver at aoliver@breitbart.com. Follow her on Twitter at @asholiver.